As it Storms Outside
by TheInkredibleKaptainKaiju
Summary: With the Fright Zone in the grips of a nasty rainstorm, Catra finds that Scorpia isn't so good with thunder. Annoyance, memories, and an excessive amount of hiding under blankets ensue as she helps her friend overcome her fear that she definitely doesn't share, for real, I mean it.


As it Storms Outside

* * *

For whatever reason, the Fright Zone was always dark. Whether it was noon or midnight, the sun never seemed to shine through the black clouds covering the sky. Few cadets even realized the sky was blue until their first excursion into the Etherian wilds. Despite this, normal weather patterns still affected the Fright Zone from time to time. Rain was rare, though it was known to occur every so often. Catra even remembered one time where it snowed. Despite Shadow Weaver's attempts to reign the cadets in, even she was powerless to dissuade a gaggle of children from engaging in their first ever snowball fight. Catra grinned at this memory as she walked through the hallways of the Fright Zone. Especially the part where she beaned Adora square in the face with a snowball. The look on her face was priceless!

Torrents of rain barraged the windows and walls, as the Fright Zone was currently in the grips of a particularly nasty thunderstorm. As a side effect of Entrapta's 'hacking' of the Black Garnet, the menacing weather remained even after the princesses had undone her machinations. Catra had been informed by the violet-haired builder that the harsh storm should dissipate within a day or two.

The sky was split open by a blinding flash of light, as well as a deafening boom. Catra continued walking, unperturbed, aside from a twitch of her ear. She wasn't a cadet anymore; she was second-in-command to Hordak himself, and could not afford to be frightened by something as trivial as a little storm. Of course, this storm was anything but small.

Catra soon reached the living-space of her fellow Force Captain, Scorpia. While the titanic woman could be a bit much at times, she was the closest thing Catra had to an ally in this place. With their latest attack on the rebel capital Brightmoon a failure, Catra had been racking her brain to come up with a better plan to bring the Princess Alliance to its knees.

She opened the door. "Okay Scorpia, I have a few ideas I wanted to bounce off of you. What if we-Scorpia?" To her confusion, the scorpion woman was nowhere to be seen. She was sure she had asked to meet her in her room, but said room was completely empty. As she scanned the room to catch a glimpse of her sort-of-friend, she saw something that both made no sense and complete sense at the same time, considering who it was: a Scorpia-sized lump was hidden beneath the blankets on her bed. As if it was not obvious enough, a red tail bearing a stinger poked out from under the covers.

Aside from the pitter-patter of raindrops, the room was completely silent, though it would not stay this way. As Catra wondered how in Etheria she didn't notice this when she first walked in, another thunderclap shattered the relative silence. The room was momentarily illuminated but the lightning, the lump that was Scorpia twitched, accompanied by a sound that was masked by the thunder, but sounded almost like a squeak.

Catra walked over to the bed, peering underneath the blankets. "Scorpia,if you're done playing hide-and-seek, I have some serious-Wha!?" The moment Catra lifted the sheet, a giant red claw grabbed her and dragged her underneath the covers towards its owner.

"Oh, Wildcat, thank goodness you're here!" Scorpia said as Catra struggled to get free, indignantly shouting at her. "I've been stuck here for two hours, I can't tell you how glad I am to see you!" She sounded quite distressed.

"Scorpia, let go of me!" Catra yelled, trying to squirm out of her fellow Force Captain's embrace. However, something she had said made her pause. "Wait, what do you mean, 'stuck here?' What's keeping you?"

Catra got her answer when another booming thunderclap rang out. Scorpia responded with a whimper, squeezing Catra closer to her. Once she released her grip enough for Catra to breathe again, the feline noticed that her friend was shivering, and that her heart was beating a mile a minute.

"Hold on, are you...are you scared of thunder?" asked Catra. Scorpia nodded, her distress clear on her face. "You can't be serious…" With that, Catra pulled herself up out of the bed and made for the door.

"Catra, wait!" Scorpia said, poking her head out from underneath the blanket. "Don't just leave me in here with the weather like that!"

"Like _what_?" asked Catra. "So there's a storm outside, big deal."

"It _is_ a big deal!" Scorpia replied. "The skies are shooting white-hot death down on us! How are you not concerned?" Another bolt; Scorpia flinced, drawing the blanket closer around herself.

"Um, let's see, why aren't I concerned?" Catra asked herself. "Maybe it's because we're _inside_, and thunder's just a lot of noise," she said dryly.

Scorpia stammered for a moment, before giving up with a sigh. "I-I know we're safe, but...but I still can't help but be afraid. You're telling me th-that furious rage of the skies themselves doesn't scare you in the least?"

Another bolt, this one lingering for a good few seconds. Scorpia retreated to the safety of her blanket-cave once again, while Catra was silent.

"Of course not, why would I be afraid of thunder?" Catra said. She said it rather quickly, defensively almost. "In any case, I can't discuss strategy if you're going to cower underneath your covers like a child every minute. I'll come back later." She began walking towards the door.

"No, wait!" Scorpia stood up, the blanket still over her shoulders, and blocked Catra's path. "Please, don't leave!" Tiny tears were visible in the corner of her eyes.

"Scorpia, you're being ridiculous!" Catra said. "It's just weather, suck it up! Now get out of-"

Another peal of thunder shook the room. Scorpia clung to Catra once again, but this time, Catra herself seemed to recoil from the sound. Nevertheless, Catra pushed Scorpia's arms off of her after a few seconds.

"Okay, fine," said Catra. "If you're gonna be weird about it, I'll stay here for a bit." Catra reluctantly sat down on Scorpia's bed, the woman sitting next to her a little too close for her liking.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" she said, sighing in relief. "It's such a relief to have someone else here!" At the next thunderclap, Scorpia threw the blanket over herself and Catra.

Once she recovered from the shock (no pun intended), Scorpia looked at Catra, who's heterochromatic eyes shone in the darkness. "So, uh...we've probably got a while until the storm ends. What do you want to talk about?"

Catra refused to meet Scorpia's gaze. "Nothing," she said. Another strike of lightning; Catra closed her eyes, and Scorpia flinched.

Rather than respond to this, Scorpia stayed silent as well. She lay down next to Catra, and did her best to ignore the storm outside. It wasn't easy, but somehow, having someone next to her made the thunder and lightning seem less scary. Doubly so since it was Catra.

Scorpia had been afraid of thunderstorms for as long as she could remember, since before the Horde had arrived. She was just a little girl then, but being afraid of storms such as this was extremely common amongst the scorpion-folk, no matter their age. In a desert such as what the Fright Zone had been, there was very little cover from the electric bolts. Even now that her lands had been industrialized, and cover was abound, Scorpia's ancestral fear remained.

Catra looked down at the woman lying beside her. Her eyes were closed, and though she was still shivering, it had lessened. "What's with you?" she asked.

Scorpia looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"You're usually a lot more talkative," said Catra. "It's just odd to see you so quiet."

Scorpia tilted her head to the side. "I thought you didn't want to talk," she said.

"I didn't," Catra replied. "I'm just surprised you listened."

"Of course I did," Scorpia said. "You're my fri-" At the next lightning strike, Scorpia wrapped her arms around Catra, earning an indignant yelp from the latter.

Nevertheless, Catra patted her on the back. "Right, you...you're my friend too. Now can I please go? We've been sitting here for twenty minutes. I want to go to bed!"

"About that...I was wondering if you could, y'know...sleep with me tonight?"

This earned her an irritated glance from Catra. "I-I meant that literally!" she clarified, blushing. "I meant, _sleep_ with me. As in, in this room. With me."

Catra stood up and made for the door. "Scorpia, you're being ridiculous," she said. "You're a Force Captain, you can handle a little thunder."

A claw extended from beneath the blanket, grabbing Catra by the arm. "Catra, wait, don't go!" Scorpia shouted.

Catra pulled her Scorpia's grasp. She was at the end of her rope with her. "Scorpia, enough!" she shouted. "This whole thing has to stop! It was amusing at first, but you can't honestly be this debilitatingly afraid of thunder! Do you have any idea what that's doing to your image? Everyone's already against you, why add even more fuel to the fire!?" Scorpia wasn't so much hurt as she was confused. Catra's tirade, it seemed, wasn't directed at her at all. "You're the only one you've got, and it's always been that way! You show any weakness, and they're all over you! Adora's not here to protect you anymore!"

The sky was split by an enormous bolt of lightning, accompanied by an even larger boom of thunder. For the first time all day, Scorpia didn't so much as flinch; Catra, on the other hand, fell to her knees, throwing her arms over her head. After the thunder had subsided, both women were still for several seconds. Only the sound of raindrops and Catra's breathing could be heard.

"Catra," Scorpia eventually said, "are…are you afraid of thunder too?" For a while, she didn't answer.

"What am I supposed to do?" Catra said. "I just don't know what to do…"

"Hey, don't worry about it," Scorpia said, getting up. She flinched at another lightning strike, but nevertheless walked over to her friend, crouching down next to her. "I know what that's like. If you want to talk, I-"

"It's not just the thunder, it's Adora, okay!?" Catra shouted. Tears stung the corners of her eyes. "It's Adora." She got up, walking over to the bed. "Back when we were kids, she would always be there for me whenever I was scared. I learned to hide it later on, but...all of this reminded me…" She stopped, curling up on the bed with her back to Scorpia.

"Uh, Catra?" Scorpia said. "Reminds you of what?"

Another thunder strike. Scorpia flinched, but Catra only shut her eyes for a moment.

"...how much I miss her," Catra said. She rolled over onto her back. "With her gone, I pretty much took her place as Hordak's most promising Force Captain. I should be glad she left, but I-I'm not. Right now, I have everything I want, but without her...I'm all alone."

"You have me, don't you?"

Catra looked Scorpia in the eyes. "Do I?"

"Absolutely," the woman replied. "I know I'm no Adora, but the least I can do is be there for you."

"Scorpia…" Catra said, trying to hide the tears in her eyes. When the next thundershock occurred, the two of them clung to one another. Slowly breaking off their embrace once they were certain the shock had gone.

"So…" said Scorpia. "I, uh, think it's a bit late for battle plans now."

"I'd say so," said Catra with a smirk. She lay down near the pillow. "You going to bed?"

Scorpia looked mildly surprised at first, before a giant smile spread across her face. She crawled into the bed, pulling the covers up over herself. "Thanks, Wildcat," she whispered.

When the sound of thunder rang out once more, Scorpia only needed focus on the warmth her friend provided to feel safe. She felt Catra's hand gently caress her hair. "Easy there, you're okay," Catra said. "You're okay."

* * *

A teenaged Lonnie stared out the window at the stormy skies above. Every so often, a flash of light would illuminate the clouds, followed not long after by a deep rumbling. The Horde cadet found herself fascinated by this phenomenon, unable to look away.

"Man, it's really going wild out there," said Kyle. "And Shadow Weaver said this is normal?"

"Mmm," Lonnie said, not looking up from the window.

Adora entered the room. "Have any of you seen Catra?" she asked. "I haven't seen her since this morning."

Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio all answered in the negative. Adora continued her search for her friend, until it lead her into the bunks.

"Catra?" she called. "Catra, are you in here?" No reply. "Where is she?" she asked herself. She searched almost the entire room, and was about to give up until she saw a lump underneath one of the blankets.

"Catra, is that you?" Adora removed the blanket, revealing her friend huddled on the bed. "Is this where you've been all day?"

"Maybe," Catra said, pulling the blanket back over herself. "I've been taking a long nap, so what?"

A distant rumble of thunder lightly shook the room, causing Catra to visibly shiver underneath the covers.

"Oh...is this about the storm?" asked Adora. She sat down beside her fellow cadet. "You know, I understand if you're scared."

"I'm _not_ scared!" Catra cried indignantly. "It just surprised me is all." Another flash of lightning caused her to retreat beneath the blanket.

"Somehow I doubt that," Adora said with a smirk that Catra did not see. "So, how come you're holed up in here? I've hardly seen you all day."

Another bolt made Catra flinch. "It's not the thunder I'm hiding from. I can deal with a little storm, but how would they react if they found out I was afraid of something as stupid as thunder? They'd be all over me, even more than they already are."

"Catra…" said Adora. She wanted to say more, but she couldn't. She just couldn't. She wanted to tell her that this wasn't the case, but she knew it was, even if she didn't want to admit it. She was the only friend Catra had in the Fright Zone. Everyone else…

"So…" she said. "Do you want me to stay here with you?"

Catra looked up from beneath the covers. A rumbling thunderbolt sounded off, but Catra paid it no mind. "Yes, I...I would," she said.

"Good, 'cause I wasn't going to leave you in here anyway!" said Adora. "Here, scooch over." She playfully shoved Catra back, crawling underneath the blanket next to her. "So, you up for a ghost story?"

"Oh, you're about to be a ghost in a minute!" laughed Catra, tackling her friend the best she could in the confined space. The impromptu wrestling match lasted a while, during which neither of the pair paid any attention to the frightful weather outside.

* * *

Droplets of rain pitter-pattered against the windows and walls as Scorpia slowly awoke from her slumber. During the night, Catra had migrated to the foot of the bed, where she now lay, quietly breathing.

Scorpia rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she walked closer to the window. While it certainly wasn't any brighter in the morning than it was at night, she noticed it was still raining. She had hoped the storm would dissipate overnight. At the very least, the thunder had stopped.

But, of course, it hadn't. Another bolt of lightning and accompanying bang of thunder split the sky. It was less violent than the ones from the previous evening, but it was still enough to send Scorpia back under the covers with a yelp.

Catra was awoken by Scorpia's sudden reentry into the bed. "I take it it's still coming down out there?" she said with a yawn. Scorpia nodded fearfully. "Well, we might as well get going. The Princess Alliance isn't going to destroy itself." She hopped up out of the bed, heading towards the door.

As she was about to leave, Catra turned back to see Scorpia still hiding underneath the blanket. "Uh, yeah, you go on ahead, I'll just wait here," said Scorpia.

Catra shook her head in exasperation, but grinned nonetheless. "Scorpia, you can't just hide in here until this thing blows over."

"Maybe not, but I can definitely try," she answered. Another thunderbolt caused her to flinch yet again.

Catra held out her hand. "Come on, let's go together. I'll walk with you."

Scorpia looked around anxiously. She recoiled from another thunderbolt, but steeled herself under Catra's eyes. Slowly, she reached out her claw, taking Catra's hand in her own. "Okay. I'm with you, Wildcat."

Hand in hand, the pair of them walked from the room. As they did so, a strike of lightning lit up the sky, followed by deep, rumbling thunder. Neither of them flinched.

* * *

"Man, it's really coming down out there," said Adora. "I hope the Horde didn't mess up the planet too bad."

"It's only a little thunder," said Glimmer. "It can't be that bad."

"Yeah," Bow said. "Besides, we fixed everything with the sword, didn't we?"

All three of them were huddled together on Glimmer's bed, sharing their warmth on this cold evening. Rain assaulted the rooftops of Brightmoon, and thunder and lightning broke the silence and lit up the night.

"I remember back at the Fright Zone, Catra used to be afraid of thunder," Adora said. "We used to huddle together just like this whenever there was a harsh storm."

Glimmer snickered. "She was afraid of thunder? Well, I guess we know what to do if she attacks Brightmoon again!"

"But, Glimmer," said Bow, "aren't you afraid of thunder, too?"

"What?" she said. "No I'm not! Maybe when I was a little kid, but not anymore!"

Once more, thunder struck. Bow and Glimmer both grabbed hold of Adora, startled by the sudden noise.

"So, am I like the only one on this planet who _isn't_ afraid of thunder?" asked Adora.

They waited out the storm for a while until Bow spoke up. "So...anybody know any ghost stories?"


End file.
